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Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Anger Is a Hot Coal

A well-known quotation attributed to Buddha goes like this: Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else: you are the one who gets burned.

The first time I read that many years ago, I had to laugh. It just makes so much sense. And so I treid to make myself think of that quote whenever I got angry ... an emotion I used to be very attuned to ... and of course, just thinking about it as the anger threaened to surge over me, a part of me had to laugh again. And obviously not only at the idea, but particularly at the image of me, desperately tossing the hot coal from one burning hand to another and constantly intending to throw it at someone, but never letting go.

That is amazingly stupid, don't you think?

So - why do we do it? Give it some thought. And then ... let go of it. Let go of the hot coal. Let go of the anger. So you can be free.